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Community colleges accomplish much on shoestring budgets
A flat tire can mean different things to different people. Maybe it’s a postponed appointment and a call to AAA. Or maybe you have to get a ride to work from your spouse. But for some folks, a flat tire can start a snowball effect. “For so many, that flat tire, that’s the end, right? It […]
Brightpoint promotes Fiege to president
William “Bill” Fiege will be the eighth president of Brightpoint Community College, the Virginia Community College System announced Monday. Fiege will begin his new role on Jan. 2, 2024. Van Wilson has led Brightpoint as interim president since February 2023, after former President Ted Raspiller stepped down from the role to take a job with […]
Workforce development
The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding Founded in 1919, The Apprentice School in Newport News has graduated more than 11,000 apprentices over its long history. Part of Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding division, it offers apprenticeship programs and Associate of Applied Science degrees in 19 shipbuilding disciplines and seven optional advanced programs of [&hel[...]
Education 2023: DAVID DORÉ
A newcomer to Virginia, Doré arrived in April as the Virginia Community College System’s new chancellor. It was quite the jump in scale from Doré’s previous role as president of campuses and executive vice chancellor for student experience and workforce development at Tucson, Arizona-based Pima Community College, which serves about 30,000 students. At VCCS, he […]
Education 2023: ANNE M. KRESS
As president of Virginia’s largest community college — and one of the largest community colleges in the country — Kress oversees faculty, staff and nearly 70,000 internationally diverse students on six campuses near Washington, D.C., including NOVA’s Medical Education Campus in Springfield. In May, Gov. Glenn Youngkin visited the college’s Alexandria campus to announce a […]
Top of the class
In April, David Doré started his new job as Virginia Community College System chancellor, stepping into the shoes of the retired Glenn DuBois, who held the position for 21 years. A Pennsylvania native who once considered becoming a Jesuit priest, Doré is a former high school teacher who once took his students to meet PBS […]
Money machine
In 2009, Donald Hart found himself in an enviable position. Leading up to his graduation from Ocean Lakes High School in Virginia Beach, Hart had been accepted to a slew of the state’s public, four-year universities: Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University, George Mason University and James Madison University. Attracted by the […]
Civilian life
Paul Valentine is on a winding career path. After leaving the Army more than a decade ago, he got his commercial driver’s license at Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave. He was taking classes to try to get an engineering degree as well but quit to take full-time work at trucking companies after his […]
Accelerating the solar workforce
When local school systems decided to add solar arrays to their buildings, regional environmental nonprofit Appalachian Voices and other members of the Solar Workgroup of Southwest Virginia counted it as a victory in their six-year efforts to develop a renewable energy cluster in Virginia’s coalfield counties. In January, Southwest Virginia Community College and Mountain Empire […]
Work it out
The Virginia Community College System is experiencing what one top official describes as a “tectonic shift.” Although transfer programs to four-year colleges still account for the largest enrollment demand in community colleges, fewer students are interested in academic programs that can provide transfer credits to a four-year institution, a traditional mission of community colleges. Instead, [...]
VFCCE names Ben Davenport chairman
Davenport Energy Inc. Chairman Ben Davenport is the next chairman of The Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, the Richmond-based foundation announced Tuesday. In 2016, Davenport and his wife, Betty, invested $1 million through VFCCE to create a pilot program with four community colleges that provided early childhood programs to 150 early childhood professionals. Those […]
VHCC tech center to expand welding, diesel tech
Demand for welders is so great that some of Eddie Fultz’s Virginia Highlands Community College students are being hired for part-time jobs while they’re still completing their training. “We’re in a manufacturing area where we cannot meet the demand,” says Fultz, coordinator of VHCC’s welding program. “It’s a great problem to have for the college. […]
